Evermine: Daughters of Askara, Book 2 by Hailey Edwards Read Free Book Online Page B

saw none. That didn’t mean they weren’t there.
    Steeling himself, he checked his fallen. Two bled out, beyond saving. The third held his center, life seeping through his fingers. Harper knelt, tearing off his shirt to staunch the blood flow.
    Derik closed his eyes, losing his hold while Harper mumbled soothing words snatched by the wind. Long seconds passed in cyclone-swirled silence. A hand closed over his shoulder, and he lurched to his feet. Healers-in-training scuttled past, bent over Derik and began their work.
    Dillon leaned close. “Second time in three months.” He passed over the crushed goggles.
    They were heavy, expensive. An ornate leaf stamp in one corner marked their maker. The initials pressed beside the twisted insignia proved what he’d suspected—they were a custom job.
    “I’m surprised it took this long for raiders to get greedy.” Harper stared toward Feriana, toying with the leather strap across his palm. They’d kept their secret as long as possible. Word must have leaked, and now vultures circled.
    Some days he wished they hadn’t tapped that vein of embolite. Silver and salt were the two most valuable commodities in Askara, and his mine held rich, if isolated, deposits of both in their natural forms. The trick was separating one mineral into two products, thereby doubling his profit.
    Ounce for ounce, the salt’s purity rivaled the silver’s worth. After all, silver meant currency and jewelry, baubles for the nobility, but salt meant life.
    Askaran females suffered a severe mineral deficiency, the same one that kept the Evanti enslaved in what once had been their homeland. In rare veins of salt, a hormone-like supplement called progesaline was found. Demon females consumed marked amounts of progesaline during pregnancy, or they became anemic. Miscarriage and death, of both infant and mother, were common in slave castes due to the inability to pay for the vital supplement. Already Harper planned outreach programs for part of his mine’s supply, but he’d hoped for more time to prepare. Today’s attack proved the purer the product, the more drastic measures raiders and nobles employed in its procurement.
    “It’ll only get worse. Once that shipment hits the black market, nobles will start asking questions.” His chest sank in a sigh Harper didn’t hear. “We need her help.”
    Her . Emma. Her name caressed his mind, as welcome to him as razors sinking through his chest.
    Recovery wasn’t an option. A shipment taken was a shipment lost. He raked a hand through his hair, tugging on the roots as if manually extracting answers. Four years left until their stipend ran dry and this colony either stood alone or blew away. “I know.” As consul, Emma’s lips brushed Nesvia’s ears. Forget the silver, and even the salt. More of both could be mined. The lives lost could never be recompensed.
    His palms shed their dusty coating in a wash of nervous sweat. Dillon was right. Hell existed, and this was it. Why else would his red-lipped, personal demoness be their only hope?
    His lips twisted in a mirthless smile. She’d called him her friend . He supposed he would find out soon enough. “Pack a bag.” He accepted the inevitable. “We’re heading for Feriana.”
    “You’re fair game out there.” Dillon scowled. “I don’t like it.”
    “I don’t have a choice.” If he had pushed harder, sooner, he might have saved lives. “I can’t hide while my people die.” The spot between his shoulders itched as if a fresh target had been drawn between the blades. The murder of Emma’s father was a feather of regret on his conscience, and he only allowed that ounce of remorse because time constraints meant Archer had an easy death, when Harper would have collected a pound of flesh for both Emma and Maddie. Still, nobles weren’t quick to see things his way. In their world, blood mattered, and the closest Harper had ever come to blue blood was when Archer’s had bathed his